Smoke and Mirrors

So BGND readers.....


It is Wednesday aka "hump day" and you are going out on the town tonight for a little well-deserved mid-week drink. The problem of course is that you have been working all day and the lovely eye make-up you put on this morning is just not going to cut it when you throw your come hither stare at the lovely stranger glancing your way down the bar.

Well, an easy and quick smoky eye is one of the most popular make-up application questions I get asked. So today I am going to talk about one of my most favored application techniques that will not only look smashing but only take a few minutes of your post-work time. To avoid bringing your entire make-up kit to work the following is all you will need for a night-time freshening:

- a shimmery/sparkly colored shadow that matches your daily eyeliner
- a small shadow/eyeliner application brush (I recommend either the smudge brush or the small eye shadow brush from Sonia Kashuk for Target - $7.99-$9.99. Her brushes are fantastic and affordable).
- a thinner liquid mascara ( to layer over your morning mascara- or what is left of it) (Maybelline Great Lash is good for layering since it is quite thin in consistency - $4.26)




Now I should clarify that this is not what I would call a full smoky eye. This is a simple technique that you can do on days you want a little something more from your shadow or in this case when you are trying to make the day to night transition.


1 - In the morning when you are getting ready, apply a decent line of eyeliner in the color of your choice. My favorites with this technique are classic black, deep brown, deep navy blue or eggplant. Smudge slightly to lessen the line if it is too dark for your daytime make-up. I recommend pencil for this eye, not liquid.

2 - When you are ready to transition to night time, take a matching shimmery shadow (metallic gray works well with black liner, copper with brown, navy blue or deep gray with blue liner and lastly deep purple shadow for eggplant liner) and apply on top of the line you created in the morning.

3 - You want to sweep the eyeshadow color completely on top of your morning liner but slightly thicker. From there, you can apply a few coats or leave it with one sheer coat of shadow. Do not fill in your whole lid, just simply shadow your previous eyeliner line. This will revive your morning eyeliner and also give you a good new shadow base.

4 - From there, slightly blend this new line upwards with the now clean shadow brush. (It is okay if there is a little residual shadow- this will help smoke your lid a bit.) Blend well at the outer corner of your eye.

5 - Sweep a few layers of thin mascara over what is left from the morning. Do not try to use a thickening or lengthening mascara here- you will just end up with clumps.)

All done! You should have a slight smoke from your lashes about half way up your lid. Just enough to give you daytime make-up some kick and a good start for someone wanting to experiment in the smoky eye department.
Here is the lovely Emmy Rossum as an example of what the slightly smoky eye looks like.

If you notice, her lids are shimmery but really only at the lash line and other than mascara and a simple base color on the brow bone, her eyes are classically simple.

Best of luck with the look and let me know how it works out for you!

Keep looking fabulous,

BGND